Lamentations 3
I hear the questions often: if God is so good, why are things in this world so bad? How can a loving God tolerate evil? How can He just let us suffer? Actually, there is much in Scripture to suggest that the assumption behind these questions is misguided. God isn’t sitting back with His arms folded in some distant locale, letting evil run rampant.
Lamentations 1
Most people refer to this book of the Bible as The Lamentations of Jeremiah, because most scholars agree it was written by the prophet Jeremiah. But these aren’t the lamentations of Jeremiah. They are the lamentations of God. Oh, Jeremiah might have also been distraught over what happened to his nation, but I believe the anguished heart cry here is all God’s.
Jeremiah 41
There’s just no getting around it—especially when you read a chapter like this. God allows awful stuff to happen in this world. He allows evil men and women to do evil things to innocent people for (apparently) no reason. He allows things to happen to His children that most of us think we would never allow our children to go through if we were in His shoes.
Or would we?
Jeremiah 7
This chapter mentions one of the great “unmentionables” of the Bible—the pagan practice of burning one’s own children alive in the fire to the god Molech. It is unthinkable that the Israelites—who were supposed to know the God of Love—could ever have gotten caught up in such a detestable practice. God thought so, too:
Isaiah 59
This chapter touches on one of the greatest theological questions of our time: how can there be an all-loving, all-powerful God when there is so much suffering in the world? For, certainly, if we had the power to end the suffering of someone we loved, wouldn’t we do it? That’s how many people come to the conclusion that (a) God must not be all-powerful and, thus, cannot do anything about our suffering or (b) God must either not love us or not exist at all.
Isaiah 43
This chapter begins with one of my all-time favorite passages in the Bible: “But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.’” (vs 1-2)
Isaiah 40
You know, there are some days on this blog when it seems like I’m grasping at straws to find something, anything in the chapter to write about. I particularly remember feeling that way during the ten genealogy chapters of 1 Chronicles! Today, I had the opposite problem. I think I could have written 15 different blogs from things in Isaiah 40. How come he had to cram all the great stuff in the same chapter?
Isaiah 39
I’ve been thinking about my dad a lot recently. {I would give almost anything to have a conversation with him about all that has gone on this year! I know he would have just the right perspective.} He taught me so many things—about how to live and, especially, about how to die. Most of what I learned from him wasn’t spoken, but observed. But today’s chapter made me think about an incredible lesson I learned from him shortly after he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. His best friend had come to visit, and he (the friend) was obviously having a hard time accepting the news. During the course of their conversation, he looked at my dad and said, “Why you?” Without a thought, my dad shrugged and replied, “Why not me?”
Isaiah 20
Do you want to serve the Lord?
Are you sure? Think carefully before you answer!
Make sure you noticed this from today’s chapter: “Then the Lord said, ‘Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt’s shame.’” (vs 3-4)
Ecclesiastes 7
A few days ago, I quoted from an article written by Aleksandar Hemon about the death of his little girl, Isabel. The paragraph I quoted began with a sentence that, at the time, I left out, but I will quote now: “One of the most despicable religious fallacies is that suffering is ennobling—that it is a step on the path to some kind of enlightenment or salvation.” Now, I don’t know about suffering being a step toward salvation, but I’m not sure I’m ready to agree that suffering is not ennobling.
Ecclesiastes 1
The last time I studied this book in a Bible study group, someone thought that Solomon would have been diagnosed with severe depression if he was living in today’s world. Certainly, someone could read Ecclesiastes 1 and get that impression! But I’m not so sure. There’s part of me that thinks Solomon—far from having a view of life that was skewed by depression—actually got it.
Psalm 126
I am blessed beyond measure. There are so many joys in my life—and one of the greatest is my wonderful husband David. In so many ways, it feels as though he and I were truly made for each other. We share deeply-held views on everything—from God to politics to education to parenting. I have never met (and am sure I never will meet) another person who seems to be my match in every way.
Psalm 124
“If the Lord had not been on our side…” begins the psalm for today. Well, that’s a scary proposition! Yet every heathen religion is based on the idea that there is a god who is not for us, a god who is angry with us, a god who must be appeased in order to accept us. Unfortunately, these heathen ideas have even permeated Christianity, where Jesus (the Son of God) is often depicted as the One who decided to stand between us and God (the Father), who was angry and unwilling to forgive us.
Psalm 110
This is one of the most well-known and well-quoted Old Testament passages—referred to in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament passage. Jesus Himself referenced this psalm to confound the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 22. Of course, Jesus is the subject of this psalm, and it has much to teach us about His mission both on earth and in heaven at present.
Psalm 83
A few days ago, one of my Facebook friends wrote this as a status update: “One upside to having a sick child… all the extra snuggles!” When I read that, it struck me that maybe God sometimes feels the same way. It is suffering, not necessarily ease and comfort, that drives us deeper into God’s arms. It is suffering that helps us identify with Him—the one who has been suffering since sin began in His universe.
Psalm 74
When my first daughter was just four months old, some missionaries from our church who were living and working abroad lost their six-month-old child in a terrible accident. Though I had never met their son, the story touched me deeply. Perhaps it was because I had a four-month-old, and it was too easy to think about losing her. Maybe when the ages are similar, things hit a little closer to home. I still think about their story to this day; I can’t even imagine what it would be like to have to bury a child. I honestly hope I never have to find out.
Psalm 56
There is such a beautiful verse in this psalm, perhaps one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible: “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” (vs 8)
When I became a stay-at-home mom for the first time with my baby daughter, I remember that there was nothing harder for me than when she cried. Oh, I don’t mean when I heard the sound of her crying. It was seeing her cry that really got to me. I could handle the moments when she was screaming her head off for one reason or another. But it was too much for me when tiny tears would slip down her cheeks. When she would cry those little tears, it broke my heart!
Psalm 52
The title of today’s blog is a quote from the beginning of today’s psalm from The Message version of the Bible: “Why do you brag of evil, ‘Big Man’? God’s mercy carries the day.” (vs 1) Other versions render it differently—God’s love will continue forever; God can be trusted day after day; Don’t you realize God’s justice continues forever?—but I thought none of them captured it as well as Eugene Petersen. God’s mercy carries the day.
Psalm 44
There is nothing else in the world like being a parent. Especially when you have a baby, you realize how children are constantly changing. Nothing much stays the same. They are always growing, learning, and maturing. It’s an amazing process. In our view, maturity has a lot to do with age. While this isn’t always the case, the older a person is, usually the more mature he is. So, the job of parents is to raise their children from infancy to adulthood, guiding them through the process of maturity.
